Nothing Trivial About It: Celebrating 20 Years!
It started with a trivia contest at the LiveWorkPlay New Year’s Eve party. Keenan Wellar was putting together a fun activity to warm up the crowd and he needed some contestants as well as some ideas for questions. Cooper Gage ended up as the co-creator of the questions, and Ian and Warren Murphy agreed to be the contestants. Designed to be difficult, the twins aced the contest, missing only 1 question between them.
With the nostalgia built up from the contest, the discussion simply never ended, flowing right through the amplified dance music and clinking of glasses into questions about the pending LiveWorkPlay Engines of Success 20th Anniversary Celebration on June 4. An ad hoc committee was struck on the spot, with the recommendation that Jennifer Harris (widely recognized as “the keeper of LiveWorkPlay facts”) be invited.
Jennifer, and Keenan at the first meeting of the ad hoc 20th anniversary committee.
The first meeting was hosted by Ian and Warren at their condo and it was extremely productive, ranging from practical considerations about the layout at St. Anthony’s Banquet Hall to extra technology that might be needed and who might provide it. There will also be a need for an extended invitations process beyond the usual annual Engines of Success event.
“There are a lot of people involved in the past who have moved away or we don’t see them so much anymore, and we want to invite them, maybe they can come this time because they made a lot of important contributions too” said Cooper, who was recently featured in Why I Run magazine.
Another hot topic was how to set a realistic agenda for the evening when there are so many people to honour and deserving of recognition.
“It’s a real struggle getting everyone up to the stage and back to their seats even at the regular Engines of Success” said Jennifer. “We need to come up with a creative solution to that and it will be fun.”
Partner recognition was also high on the list of priorities established by Ian, who easily came up with a significant list. “Some of these people and organizations have been supporting us from day one and there are also newer partners that are a big part of what we do now, we have to recognize both types of groups.”
Warren led the discussion of “special guests” in reference to particular individuals that are well known figures in the Ottawa community or even beyond Ottawa but who share an important connection with LiveWorkPlay. “It can’t just be about whether or not they are famous it’s about whether or not they’ve been involved with the LiveWorkPlay community in a real way.”
If you want to see how this all plays out, get yourself a ticket, and don’t delay! The regular edition of Engines of Success usually sells out and last year tables and chairs had to be squeezed in to the corners at the last minute. You will also be able to take advantage of early bird pricing!